:: Books Plus

Fire within: A journey in search of the self

Nawaid Anjum

We all have the power to reimagine the ways we want to live our lives, the overpowering will to overcome all odds, the fierce determination to face the challenges strewn in our way. Call it the "fire within" or the "inner energy", there is a force within us that transforms us, that makes us see what we are endowed with, what we are capable of. There is a force that helps us reach our true potential, ignite us to our real purpose.

As we go about the business of living, we discover, to our dismay, that there are so many things that aren’t right in our worlds. We keep hurtling from one job to another, from one relationship to another, from one disaster to another, and life falls into a familiar pattern. It becomes a habit, a routine. More often than not we are afraid to break free, to get out of the rut, to strive for a higher end, to search for the nobler purpose of our existence.

But there are a few of us who dare to change the course of the familiar, to redesign their destiny. They have the indomitable spirit to triumph against all odds, be it failure in business or relationships. Their spirit never sags. Their courage never fails.

I Am Another You is the story of one such person — its author, Priya Kumar. The Mumbai-based corporate trainer and motivational speaker, 36, was driven to the edge by her boyfriend who walked out on her, and her business partner, who she claims fled with her share of business, and money. Life seemed to fall apart. Everything seemed to be lost. But far from wallowing in grief and self-pity, Priya headed for the Netherlands in April 2004 for what she thought would be a journey into the unknown, an escape, a search for solace. Her month-long stay at Winterswijk, two hours southeast of Amsterdam, was full of feats and derrings-do: Living with the shamans, the ancient tribesmen of north Europe and south America, who are believed to be "intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds", Priya took part in 13 rituals which are said to "set your spirit free". In the book, however, she talks about five of them. They include her experiences of leading a fire walk and drinking five glasses of salt water in a day.

The book gets its title from shamans’ way of greeting when they meet a stranger: In Lak’ech, (I am another you). Living with the shamans taught Priya that "we are all the same beings, the same force, partaking of the same pressure and the same passion".

When Priya had set out on the journey, she was lost, disoriented, grieving. But, in the end, she emerges healed, confident, focused. The transformation had happened. She had found the keys to live a better, fruitful and productive life. The parting words of Kahuna, her spiritual master, were: "Create your magic. Spread your love and spread your light. Create a celebration wherever you go. Make this a world of celebration and joy so that the gods look down and say, ’Hey there’s a party happening here, let’s go too’. Let your life and work be and invitation to the gods to come and celebrate their creation."

Each of the five gruelling process — Sweat lodge, salt cleanse, drummer’s edge, spiritual walk and fire walk — teaches Priya a lot. She distils those lessons and summarises them at the end of each chapter. These nuggets of applied wisdom help you learn all there is to learn from her experiences.

The book, for Priya, is not an end. She came back from the Netherlands in 2004, but the journey — her "search for a better self" — continues. So does her quest for "spiritual freedom through a life well-lived". Through the book, she tries to connect to other people who might have had similar experiences. She has "opened the book to an experience." And now, she intends to hold forums for self-improvement across the globe and conduct some of these rituals she was a part of to allow other people to benefit from them.

I Am Another You is a meditation on the power of human beings to transform themselves, if they so desire, and a testimony to the triumph of the human spirit against life-altering odds. It exhorts us to take a peek into our selves and find the routes that connect us to fellow human beings. For we may be different in a million different ways, but are essentially the same. Our journeys may be different, but we all keep heading for the same destination. And therefore, every other person is, in fact, another you.